August 8, 2013: eM-Internship 2013 – A Great Experience for Fifteen Students from the MENA Region

Fifteen students from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt and Libya had the unique opportunity to learn for ten days about Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Technologies at the Plataforma Solar de Almeria, Europe’s biggest test platforms in this field.

enerMENA Summer Internship 2013

Read here how students express their thoughts and experiences about their stay in Almería in their own words:

Ghania Affif Chaouche, Algeria

“The aspects I enjoyed most about my internship at the Plataforma Solar of Almeria were the people and my overall learning experience. I gained invaluable insight into solar thermal technology – an area I know little about before. I discovered firsthand what happens in Concentrating Solar Systems and had the chance to work on practical tests. Everybody I met along was extremely kind and genuine and I was treated with the utmost respect. It felt like my work and opinions were valued. All in all, it was a thoroughly fulfilling experience.”

Yassine Alj, Morocco

“From the enerMENA Internship I expected to get some knowledge about CSP technologies but it was much more. A group of highly motivated students from different countries of the MENA region and highly qualified trainers from German Aerospace Center, Plataforma Solar de Almeria and Solar Institute Jülich made this Internship a great experience and strengthened my conviction to pursue a professional career in the field of CSP.”

Ahmed Adel, Egypt

„Renewable energies is very special for me because I care a lot about environmental affairs and clean energy and I really hope one day to have a better future for us as a human beings and for the upcoming generations.This Internship was so unique because I was living in an international environment, engineers from Spain, Germany and France gave us their amazing experience in CSP who taught us as possible as they can and were with us in every step in the training. We were as a family doing everything together, perform experiments by our hands and handling with original, very expensive devices. I will never forget our group of students from MENA region who came from Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya and Algeria. They were so amazing and so much friendly but the most incredible thing about them was that they were so much different like special students; they came because they had a dream to achieve and a country to improve. We were many bodies but just one and, one brain and one aim, to make the MENA region one day a leader in CSP technology.People at the Plataforma Solar de Almeria were so friendly, they helped us where they could, gave us all what we needs and provided us with all necessary tools and devices. We heard lectures about CSP and performed many experiments using real measurements.In addition, what makes PSA special is that it has all CSP technologies in just one place with a lot of experts in all fields and of course, we had a perfect schedule for the whole internship. Really, everything was just perfect. This experience for me was really an incredible turning point in my life to have a brilliant future and dreaming to ben an international expert in CSP in the nearly coming future.”

Saif Trabelsi, Tunisia

“I want to thank the scientists, experts and organizers of the Internship. I was impressed by the Plataforma Solar de Almeria with all its tools and sophisticated equipment. It is amazing to have all solar thermal technologies in just one place with professional operators and German and Spanish experts in every technology field. I benefited by the lessons, tutorials and practical exercises and the unique working experience in a group of students from different MENA countries. I was very impressed by the site visit of Novatec´s Fresnel Power Plant. From my point of view, the Internship could be longer, because I still need to learn so much about the Technologies, but I hope to repeat another Internship.”